GOLD PRICES rallied $10 per ounce from yesterday's fresh 5-month lows against the Dollar in Asian trade Wednesday, only to lose half that bounce in London as traders looked to today's key US monetary policy decision from the Federal Reserve.
With US inflation data due later on Wednesday, just before the US Fed's widely-expected quarter-point hike to interest rates, new data this morning put Germany's consumer-price index 1.8% higher in November Wednesday, December 13, 2017

I’ve predicted that a long period of deflation in the Western world would end with a Fed taper, rate hikes and quantitative tightening.
That’s clearly in play now, and the deregulation of America’s thousands of small banks is perhaps the most exciting event taking place on this new “inflationary frontier”. Because of these powerful monetary trends, I’ve predicted big problems ahead for Wall Street and somewhat better times for Main Street.
Having said, that, I think investors would be making aWednesday, December 13, 2017

The debate continues between the SRSrocco Report and CPM Group’s Jeff Christian on the fundamentals of the silver market. After my article, in which I questioned the CPM Group’s exclusion of silver investment demand from their supply and demand analysis, Jeff Christian responded with a comment on my website. I am glad that Mr. Christian responded because it now allows me the opportunity to explain in more detail why I disagree with the CPM Group’s analysis.As I have mentioned before, this has Tuesday, December 12, 2017

And so, as they say in the horror movies, it begins…! The unwinding of the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet. Such an esoteric concept! Is there one in ten thousand of the millions of people who sit at desks all day long from sea to shining sea who have a clue how this works? Or what its relationship is to the real world?
I confess, my understanding of it is incomplete and schematic at best — in the way that my understanding of a Las Vegas magic act might be. All the flash and dazzle conceals theTuesday, December 12, 2017

It was two years ago this week that I proclaimed that we were witnessing the final lows in the 2011–2015 bear market in the precious metals as gold traded down to $1,045 amidst total capitulation by the Large Specs and after massive short-covering by the Commercial traders. The weekly COT for that week showed an aggregate short position of a miniscule 2,911 contracts down from the earlier highs of over 300,000 contracts. About six weeks later, despite the earlier bottom in gold, the HUI (NYSE ArTuesday, December 12, 2017

Gold and silver market analyst Harvey Organ today posts an open letter to the chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, J. Christopher Giancarlo, calling attention to the transfer to London of a huge number of gold and silver futures contracts claimed for delivery on the New York Commodities Exchange.
Organ writes that the transfers, called "exchanges for physicals," purportedly are allowed in emergencies but have become common occurrences -- so common, in fact, that more ComexTuesday, December 12, 2017

Bitcoin is making quite a name for itself. Once understood as a niche financial product intended to facilitate peer to peer (P2P) transactions, Bitcoin has skyrocketed more than 1,000% to become one of the most valuable and coveted commodities on earth. As a result, Bitcoin is attracting attention from mainstream financial institutions including Goldman Sachs, CMO Group Inc., and Cboe Inc. Last week, Cboe announced that it would begin trading Bitcoin futures on December 10th, which promptedCNBC Tuesday, December 12, 2017

"They never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge."
Thomas Reed (R-Maine)
Bloomberg had economist Art Laffer, of the eponymous Laffer Curve, talking up the GOP 'Tax Reform' bill in all its 'trickle down' glory. I did not even know this retrograde nonsense peddler was still around, having been discredited in his economic theory of top down stimulus rebranded as 'supply side economics'. Now we know just how bad for the people this new tax legislation may be.
TheTuesday, December 12, 2017

SILVER PRICES failed to follow a small bounce in gold bullion Monday morning in London, holding unchanged versus the US Dollar from New Year 2017 as gold held $100 per ounce higher from January 1st ahead of this week's long-anticipated US Federal Reserve decision on interest rates.
With
silver prices slipping towards last week's new 5-month lows beneath $15.70 per ounce, world stock markets rose with commodities and major governmentMonday, December 11, 2017

A meme we have seen in the bitcoin community seems to be gaining traction. Bitcoin is deflationary. That is prices of things, measured in bitcoin, are falling. For example, in spring 2011, gasoline was Ƀ1.00. This week, that same gallon had fallen to Ƀ0.0001875. Gas has gone down by 99.98 percent!
We don’t think that even the diehard bitcoin bugs really believe this.
But it leads to an interesting point. In the past, we have used the analogy of measuring a steel meter stick with stretchy rubber Monday, December 11, 2017

By Olga Kharif
Bloomberg News
Saturday, December 9, 2017
Cameron Winklevoss, thought to be one of the largest holders of bitcoin, thinks the cryptocurrency's blazing gains this year are just the start. He predicts it will rise as much as 20-fold as investors come to view it as an upgrade to gold.
Wall Street's plan to launch futures contracts on Sunday, making it easier to bet against the digital currency's rally in recent months, is making some enthusiasts nervous -- but not Winklevoss. He's onMonday, December 11, 2017

Bitcoin mania could prove to be the flashpoint for some of the world's largest oil-producing countries to make a major move against the dollar, according to one commodity analyst.
The world's most popular cryptocurrency has skyrocketed in recent months, soaring above $19,000 on Thursday on the Coinbase exchange, before notching a huge decrease. Such wild price swings have prompted some of the world's biggest banks to denounce bitcoin as a fraud, warning investors of a speculative bubble doomed tMonday, December 11, 2017

Sharps Pixley's Lawrie Williams this week calls attention to silver market analyst Ted Butler's observation that not just JPMorganChase but also Goldman Sachs seem to be acquiring large amounts of gold and silver via the New York Commodity Exchange. Williams adds that GATA's Ed Steer notes that the recent price smashes in the monetary metals seem to result from more futures market manipulation.
"If Ted and Ed are correct," Williams writes, "then it looks like JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs could be Monday, December 11, 2017

Nobody was quite sure what would happen when the futures markets opened on Sunday night. We now know.This evening, CBOE futures launched. These Tweets describes the result.
The Wall Street Journal reports Bitcoin Futures Begin Trading With a Bang, CBOE Website Stalls.
The first bitcoin futures started trading Sunday, sparking a swift run-up in the price of the digital currency as the exchange provider’s website experienced outages from heavy traffic.
Trading of the hotly anticipated U.S. bitcoiMonday, December 11, 2017

* * *
Bitcoin Flirts with $16,000, Alarm Bells Ring Louder
By Jemima Kelly and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss
Reuters
Thursday, December 7, 2017
Bitcoin rocketed to a lifetime high just shy of $16,000 today after climbing some 60 percent over one week, intensifying the debate about whether the cryptocurrency is in a bubble about to burst.
The largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange struggled to keep up with record traffic as the price surged, with an upcoming launch of the first bitcoin futures contract Sunday, December 10, 2017

"About 40 percent of bitcoin is held by perhaps 1,000 users; at current prices, each may want to sell about half of his or her holdings, says Aaron Brown, former managing director and head of financial markets research at AQR Capital Management. (Brown is a contributor to the Bloomberg Prophets online column.) What’s more, the whales can coordinate their moves or preview them to a select few. Many of the large owners have known one another for years and stuck by bitcoin through the early daysSaturday, December 9, 2017

GOLD and SILVER prices steadied above 5-month lows versus the US Dollar in London trade Friday, rallying into the weekend as global stock markets rose.
The
EuroStoxx 50 index of Europe's largest corporations added 1.8% for the week.
Commodities edged higher but major government bond prices slipped further from Thursday's drop, when gold fell to its lowest since early July at $1244 pFriday, December 8, 2017

If Bitcoin really is like gold, watch out...!
NEW YEAR's DAY 1975 marked a huge turn in the gold market,
writes Adrian Ash at BullionVault.
Forty years after banning it, the US government at last let private citizens own bullion.
Coin shops and banks knew how big this was. So they raced to stock up as 1974 ended.
Friday, December 8, 2017

Bitcoin’s meteoric skyrocketing this year has been astonishing,
captivating traders across the globe. This once-obscure
cryptocurrency has exploded into the world’s hottest market. With
fortunes being won on paper, everyone is talking about bitcoin. But
with its price shooting parabolic, unfortunately this wild ride has
all the hallmarks of a classic popular speculative mania. And those
all end badly, totally collapsing.
In
the annals of financial-market historFriday, December 8, 2017